Try Gingerbread Muffins from a New Hoosier Mama Cookbook That Focuses on Breakfast Bakes – and Their History

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The Hoosier Mama Book of Breakfast Bakes, a new cookbook out December 16 by Paula Haney of the popular Hoosier Mama Pie Company, contains much more than its title suggests. Sure, there are whole sections on scones, biscuits, quick breads, brioche, and muffins (try the book’s gingerbread muffin recipe below). But when Haney took a break from preparing for Thanksgiving to talk about the book – each of her two shops makes 1,500 to 1,700 pies for the holiday – she kept mentioning not the first meal of the day but the last.

“You come home, you wanna have dinner – you can throw these biscuits together in five minutes. And they’re really best eaten out of the oven,” she said of the emergency drop biscuit recipe included in the book. You can then draw on her advice for creating the ideal biscuit sandwich, trying some of the simple recipes she includes for components like melted leeks, pimento cheese, ratatouille, and nut-free pesto.

“I’m hoping people will take that information and mix and match,” Haney said. She wants people to come up with their own combinations instead of just recreating some of the seasonal sandwiches served at Hoosier Mama’s locations in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood (the original) and in Evanston – which is also where Haney’s locally focused publisher, Agate Publishing, is headquartered. Haney works closely with local farms for many of her ingredients, so everything from pie flavors to biscuit toppings changes with the availability of produce.

That mix-and-match approach works for the sweets in the new book as well, with various sauces, icings, and fillings that could be combined for, say, a new Danish.

The Hoosier Mama Book of Breakfast Bakes also contains more than recipes. It includes explorations of the history of some of these dishes – much of which wasn’t written down at the time – reflecting Haney’s early background in journalism. She tells the story of a General Mills executive who was astonished when he ordered labor-intensive biscuits after the dinner hour on a train and was quickly served them fresh out of the oven. The Black chef on the train explained that he kept a prepared biscuit mixture in the icebox ready to go; this idea led to the invention of Bisquick.

“You’re kind of telling the whole story of the country through this one food and how it evolved,” Haney said of the history of biscuits, which also touches on slavery, Southern economics, and developing technology.

“I think it’s important to tell those stories, both as a recognition for fellow bakers, but also I just think it’s fascinating. I think it’s probably the quickest way to learn history,” she said. “If you tell me what you’re having for dinner, that tells me a lot right there in the instant, and it’s very immediate.”

Part of the reason Haney started Hoosier Mama two decades ago was to preserve some of the humble American foodways that had fallen to convenience and changing fashions. “A lot of people had never had a banana cream pie, for example, that didn’t come out of the freezer, or that didn’t use Jell-O pudding as the base recipe,” she said. “Honestly, people didn’t have a very good opinion about traditional American food, because it had been dumbed down and you’re buying it out of the grocery store freezer, and it just wasn’t treated with respect.”

She has helped change that attitude toward pie with Hoosier Mama and The Hoosier Mama Book of Pie, both of which have garnered national attention. Knowledge of and appreciation for foods like biscuits and scones has increased in the twelve years since Haney published the Book of Pie, although the lowly carbs could still perhaps use some reputational rehabilitation. Whether the Book of Breakfast Bakes can help remains to be seen – but there is at least a good chance it will get some people to start making breakfast for dinner. 

Gingerbread Muffins

Reprinted with permission from The Hoosier Mama Book of Breakfast Bakes, published by Agate © Paula Haney, December 2025.

These muffins are pure holiday magic—not too sweet, with lots of warm wintery spices and pops of candied ginger. I’m a stickler for seasonality, but our baker Maria loves these so much, she’s been known to put them on the menu in July on my days off. Hard to be mad, and customers love them too. If you don’t see candied ginger in the supermarket, try an Asian grocer.

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (420g)
2  1/4 cups packed dark brown sugar (480g)
1  1/2 tablespoons ground ginger (9g)
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (6g)
3/4 teaspoon ground allspice (1.5g)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda (4.5g)
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt (2.25g)
1  1/2 cups buttermilk (340g)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature (170g)
3 large eggs (150g)
3 tablespoons chopped candied ginger (30g)
Sanding sugar, for finishing (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Prepare a muffin tin with paper liners.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, ground ginger, cinnamon, allspice, baking soda, and salt.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, melted butter, and eggs.

4. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and fold with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula until just a few streaks of flour remain. Fold in the candied ginger.

5. For jumbo muffins, scoop 1/2 cup batter into each muffin cup. For standard muffins, scoop 1/4 to 1/3 cup batter into each muffin cup. Top muffins with sanding sugar, if using.

6. Bake standard muffins for 20 to 25 minutes and jumbo muffins for 25 to 30 minutes, until they are firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

7. Store the muffin batter in the fridge for up to 3 days before baking. Store baked muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days. Revive tired muffins by splitting, toasting, and spreading with butter.